


Ain't I Pretty

by orphan_account



Series: Kings of New York [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Gen, newsies au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 12:07:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6283939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lafayette first sees the dress while going to Hercules family's apartment and decides he needs it.</p>
<p>He saves up his money and is able to buy it.</p>
<p>He wears it everyday while selling newspapers and pretends to be a girl in order to get more customers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ain't I Pretty

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in the late 1800s, and it's part of my Newsies au I'm working on.  
> You don't need to have watched Newsies to read this.  
> This is somewhat based on a story I read about a real newsie who sold papers wearing a dress.  
> Lafayette is 10 in this, Hercules is 12, and Aaron is 11.

Lafayette had been in America for about a year when Hercules first invited him to dinner at his family’s apartment.

The first thing Lafayette asked was, “Do I need to give you money?”  Since he lived at the lodging house, and not with a family, he was used to paying for every meal.  He was never just given food anymore.  It was one of the things he missed the most about his parents.  His mom had been a good cook.

Hercules just laughed.  “Of course not.  You’re our guest.  We would never make you pay.”

Lafayette nodded and smiled.  “That is good,” he said.  “Does your mom make good food?”

“Of course. It’s the best.  And since you’re coming over, it’ll probably be even better. So we’ll meet here in about two hours, okay?  Go sell the rest of your papers and then I’ll take you home.”

“I cannot wait,” Lafayette said.  He was happy to be having a home cooked meal for the first time since his parents died.  “Good-bye, Hercules.”  He ran off down the sidewalk over to a group of men walking by and tried to sell them all a paper.  He wanted to sell the rest of his papers as quickly as possible, so he could go over to the Mulligans’. 

***

After the two hours had passed, Hercules and Lafayette met back up, and Hercules led the way to his apartment.  Lafayette was very confused when Hercules brought him to a clothing shop instead.

“I thought you were bringing me to your home,” he said. “Why are we here?”

“My family owns the shop,” Hercules explained.  “Our apartment is upstairs.”

Lafayette’s eyes widened in surprise.  “Your family owns it, and you still sell papers?”

Hercules shrugged.  “The money I make selling papers is mostly for myself, but sometimes when business is bad I’ll give some of the money to my family.”

A man over at the counter called Hercules over.  Based on his appearance, Lafayette assumed that it must be Hercules’ dad.  They looked nearly identical. 

“I’ll be right back, okay?” said Hercules.  “Just wait here, and I’ll bring you up for dinner.”

Lafayette just nodded and watched as Hercules went over to talk to his dad.  He decided to look around the shop while he waited.  As he wandered around, he found some really nice pieces of clothing.  He stopped when he saw a beautiful dress.

It was a dress for a child.  It had short sleeves and was a very pale shade of blue with flower patterns on it. The best part about the dress was that it looked like it would fit him perfectly.  As he was looking at the dress he heard Hercules come up behind him and he spun around.

“Are you ready to go up for dinner?” Hercules asked.

Lafayette nodded and followed Hercules upstairs. 

The food was great, and Hercules’ family was really nice, but all Lafayette could think about throughout the dinner was the dress in the shop.  

After the meal ended, Lafayette thanked Hercules and his parents for letting him over and started his walk back to the lodging house. Hercules had offered to walk him, but he didn't mind walking by himself. He needed some time to think anyways. 

Lafayette spent the entire walk back thinking about the dress. He really wanted to buy it so he could sell papers as a girl. He was sure he'd make more money that way, since more people would likely feel sympathy for a girl. 

Based on how much money he had, and how much he made and spent on an average day, he realized that it would only take a couple of weeks to save up enough money for the dress. 

He couldn’t stop himself from smiling for the rest of his walk. 

***

Lafayette was busy the next few weeks.  He wanted to buy the dress as quickly as possible in case somebody else bought it.  In order to do this, he bought more papers in the mornings, and found various spots to sell in order to make more money.

He also had to stop himself from buying anything that was unnecessary.  Unfortunately, part of what he figured was unnecessary was food.  He didn’t completely stop eating. He would just buy less meals or food that was cheaper.  He wasn’t going to let himself starve.  As soon as he had the dress, he would be able to eat more again.

He also started watching some newsgirls.  He needed to see if they actually were able to make more money everyday.  Based on his observations, it did seem like more people were likely to go buy a paper from a girl than a boy when both a girl and a boy were selling near each other.

He started to figure out what he would do once he got the dress.  He realized he would have to act like a girl as well, so he started watching the way girls acted all the time, so nobody would think he was a boy while wearing the dress.

He then decided he needed to pick out a girl’s name to go buy during the day when he was wearing the dress.  After several day, he finally chose the name Marie.  He thought it was a really pretty name, so he decided it would be his girl name.

A few weeks after first seeing the dress, Lafayette had finally raised enough money to pay for the dress as well as a ribbon to tie his hair back with.  He decided that tomorrow he would go to the shop when he was sure Hercules wasn’t there, and would buy it.

He went to bed smiling over the fact he would finally have the dress.

***

“I think I am going to sell by myself today, Hercules,” Lafayette said the next morning at the distribution center.  “I promise we can sell together tomorrow.”

“That’s fine,” Hercules responded.  “Have a good day.”  He walked off to go sell his papers.

Lafayette smiled and walked in the opposite direction, towards the shop with the dress. He sold his papers on the walk there.  When he arrived he walked up to the counter, where Hercules’ dad was.

“You’re the friend Hercules invited over a few weeks ago,” the man stated.

Lafayette nodded.  He pointed over to where the dress was.  “I want to buy that dress please.  A ribbon too. I have money.”  He emptied his pockets onto the counter.  It was mostly pennies with a few other coins mixed in.  

“What do you need a dress for?”

“It is for a friend,” he said.  “Her name is Marie.  I said I would buy it for her.”

Hercules’ dad smiled.  “I’m sure your friend will like it.”  He went over and grabbed it for Lafayette.  He handed the dress to him along with a matching ribbon.  He also gave him some of the money he’d thrown on the counter.  “You gave me extra.  You get some change.”

“Thank you, sir,” Lafayette said.  He held tightly to the dress and walked out of the store.  Once he got outside, he ran back to the lodging house as quickly as he could, so nobody would see him carrying the dress.

As soon as he arrived, he climbed onto his bunk, and hid the dress under his pillow.

Lafayette was so excited for tomorrow, so it took him a really long time to fall asleep, but he eventually did.

***

The next morning, as soon as Lafayette woke up, he slipped on the dress.  He didn’t even bother to get out of bed first.  He was really excited to be selling as Marie.  Secretly, he was also happy to be wearing the dress.

He tied his hair back with the ribbon he’d bought, and then he climbed down from the top bunk and saw Aaron, who had the bunk under his, staring at him. 

“Are you wearing a dress?” Aaron asked.

“Oui.”

“Why exactly?”

“I will make more money if people think I’m a girl,” he stated.  Nobody needed to know that he also enjoyed wearing the dress. 

“You don’t have any shoes on,” said Aaron.

Lafayette looked down at his feet which were completely bare. “I didn’t have enough money to buy a pair of girl shoes.  Maybe people will feel bad for a girl with no shoes and will buy from me. I am leaving now.  Good bye.”

As he walked away he heard Aaron mumble something about how weird everybody was.  He was really excited to go outside as Marie, so he left earlier than he normally did.  When he arrived at the distribution center, he plopped down on the ground and waited for Hercules to arrive before he bought any papers.  

The time was going by very slowly.  Lafayette was starting to get really nervous waiting.  What if Hercules didn’t like that he was dressing up as a girl?  What if he thought it was really stupid?  Would he be mad at him?

He was so busy worrying that he didn’t even notice when Hercules finally showed up.  


"Laf, is that you?"

Lafayette looked up and smiled.  He got up on his feet and dusted off his dress.  “You’re finally here.  I’ve been waiting forever.  Do you like my dress?”  He showed off his dress by spinning around. 

“You look...pretty? I guess,” Hercules said.  “My dad told me you bought that dress.  He told me that you’d said it was for somebody, and I didn’t think you had anybody to buy it for.  You got it for yourself?”

Lafayette nodded.  “I really liked the dress, and I wanted to buy it.  I started watching some of the girls who sold papers, and I think they were getting more money.  I decided to pretend to be a girl during the day, so I could make more money.”  He paused for a second, then whispered in Hercules’ ear, “Plus I really like wearing the dress.”

“You really do look like a girl in that dress, Laf.”

Lafayette’s face lit up.  “Thank you.  You have to call me Marie when I am wearing it though, okay?  I can pretend to be your little sister, and we can pretend that I am sick, and we will make lots of money.”

“Okay then, Marie.  I’ll go buy us some papers, and we’ll sell together all day, alright?”  He kissed Lafayette on the cheek and went to go wait in line with the other newsies. 

“How much money do I owe you?” Lafayette asked as Hercules walked back over to him.

“You don’t owe me anything,” he said. “I’m paying for you today.  You just spent a lot of money on that dress.  I’m also not going to let you walk, because you’ll cut up your feet without any shoes on.  I’ll carry you on my back, so hop on.”

Lafayette grinned and jumped up onto Hercules’ back. He wrapped his arms around his neck and his legs around his waist.

“You’re too light,” Hercules said.  “You need to eat more.”

“It is because I skipped eating some days, so I could buy the dress quicker.”

“Well I’m going to buy you some lunch today.”

“You are too nice to me, Hercules.  I am glad you are my friend.”

“I thought I was your brother,  _ Marie _ .”

Lafayette just laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any questions or anything, my tumblr is kingof-santafe.


End file.
